Stupid is as Stupid Does

I consider myself to be somewhat lucky. I have a near eidetic memory – I can recall any number of facts and figures with amazing precision, I have a high IQ, and I’m an extremely fast learner. I find my my brain works faster and more logically than most of your garden variety Neurotypicals… basically my brain is more like a computer than a brain.

This is all well and good, but when it comes to emotional conversations and dealing with day to day things. My logical and very analytical way of looking at things can cause me all kinds of problems. You see, at times I see things in the world in a very black and white way. An almost regimented, right or wrong way and this kind of thinking can frustrate most people. The most affected are those wonderful people that are especially close to me. It can almost seem like I’m deliberately trying to annoy them and that I’m stupid. As a result of this, I can seem to do some seemingly stupid things because of my mind’s rigid views on things.

Let me try to put it in simpler terms

You know when you’re on the motorway and everybody moves along like a dance: merging, exiting, changing lanes. There’s moving over for a lorry. There’s moving away if you’re blocking someone who wants to go faster than you. There are all kinds of unwritten rules we stick to in order to not run each other over.

The Aspergers car is the one on cruise control at exactly the speed limit. Technically, that’s what everyone is supposed to do, but there are a million scenarios where if you refuse to slow down or speed up, you actually make everyone else’s life hell.

But there’s no way to tell that annoying car, “Hey, you’re breaking the law,” (because they’re not) and you can’t tell them, “Hey, you’re being inconsiderate,” (because they’ll say, “Well, that merging car could have slowed down until I got by.”) You can’t tell that car, “Hey, there are some unwritten rules you’re not paying attention to.” (They’ll say like what? And then they will argue.) does this make any sense?